Bishop Michael F. Burbidge celebrated Mass on the feast of the Annunciation March 25 at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington. After Communion, he knelt before the altar and recited an act of consecration of Russia, Ukraine and all of humanity to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in union with Pope Francis in Rome.
“Our hearts are deeply troubled,” said Bishop Burbidge during his homily. “Yet, even in the midst of this, we do not despair, because we are believers.” He continued, citing two phrases to take comfort in: the line from the day’s Gospel, “For nothing will be impossible for God,” and from the act of consecration, that Mary never ceases to lead people to Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
“We are united, dear friends, in our belief in the healing love of Jesus and his power to transform hearts, to bring an end to war and conflict and division, and to allow his peace to spread and to reign throughout the world. For nothing will be impossible for God,” he said.
Pope Francis invited bishops and priests worldwide to join him in the act of consecration after Ukraine’s Catholics urged him to make the consecration following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Exactly 38 years ago, Pope John Paul II consecrated Russia and the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Rome March 25, 1984, in response to Our Lady of Fatima’s request to the three child visionaries in 1917. During her appearances to Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta, Mary promised the conversion of Russia and peace if her requests for consecration and reparation were heeded.
“Mother of mercy, how often we have experienced your watchful care and your peaceful presence,” Bishop Burbidge prayed during the consecration. “Yet we have strayed from that path of peace. We have forgotten the lesson learned from the tragedies of the last century, the sacrifice of the millions who fell in two world wars. We have disregarded the commitments we made as a community of nations. We have betrayed peoples’ dreams of peace and the hopes of the young,” he said.
But “(God) has given you to us and made your Immaculate Heart a refuge for the church and for all humanity,” he prayed. “We now turn to you and knock at the door of your heart,” imploring specifically for freedom from war and the menace of nuclear weapons.
“Therefore, Mother of God and our Mother, to your Immaculate Heart we solemnly entrust and consecrate ourselves, the church and all humanity, especially Russia and Ukraine. Accept this act that we carry out with confidence and love. Grant that war may end and peace spread throughout the world. … To you we consecrate the future of the whole human family, the needs and expectations of every people, the anxieties and hopes of the world.”
Della Bauserman asked to bring up the gifts during Mass. “So much tragedy is going on during the war, people are displaced and things are being destroyed, there’s just horrible destruction,” she said. “I’m just hoping that this will have the effect of bringing peace to the region and to the world.”
Priests across the diocese also recited the prayer following Mass in their parishes March 25.
Bartlett can be reached at [email protected].
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The Catholic Herald was in Fatima to mark the 100th anniversary of the apparitions. Read more about Fatima at bit.ly/3IGzgOu.
For more on the history of Russia’s consecration to Mary, go to catholicherald.com/article/columns/history-of-russias-consecration-to-mary.
